Desmond Ridder 'Picking Brains' of Past New Orleans Saints on Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder has a unique advantage this week facing the New Orleans Saints.

Desmond Ridder is the Atlanta Falcons starting quarterback once again, and ironically enough, his first start at his return to the top of the depth chart comes against the New Orleans Saints, the team he faced in his first start last year.

This year is a little different though, because Ridder has a few more starts under his belt and a couple of former Saints on his side, including defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen and linebacker Kaden Elliss, both of whom were with New Orleans preparing against him last year.

Ridder is taking advantage of having some enemy insight in the building.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder / Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports

"Just try to pick their brain," Ridder said. "They run a similar scheme. Obviously, they’re going to tweak things up and do a couple of different things. But when you talk about guys like that, you talk about the personnel. Not how are they inside and outside of the building but what is their mentality? How are they? Are they playing fast and physical or are they playing hesitant? Are they someone who second-guesses or are they someone who might get confused with motion and this and that? That more so rather than the scheme of the game."

Ridder and the Falcons need this win against the Saints. A victory on Sunday would not only keep the Falcons undefeated in the NFC South, but it would catapult Atlanta back into first place in the division. A loss would place the Falcons two games back and without the tiebreaker to help them out.

Kickoff between the two teams is scheduled for 1 p.m. inside Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

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